Signs Of the Times

Debt from college loans makes some men and women postpone joining a religious community, according to a survey of men and women professing final vows as members of a religious order. Ten percent of those who professed final vows in 2013 had an average amount of $31,000 in college debt and the averag

A series of bomb attacks rocked Cairo, Egypt, on Jan. 23, the day before the third anniversary of the street revolution in 2011 that toppled the Hosni Mubarak regime. Six people were killed, hundreds were injured, and the city’s police headquarters, strafed and scored in the aftermath of a mas

In Jordan’s capital city, Amman, prayers for peace were being offered by refugee Syrian Christians as talks between the warring sides in Syria’s civil war opened in the Swiss town of Montreux. Dubbed Geneva II, the talks aim for a transitional government, an end to the violence and the d

The cardinal who heads Pope Francis’ Council of Cardinals said the Catholic Church is entering a “new era” and accused critics of the pope’s statements on economic injustice of failing to “understand reality.”“Francis wants to lead the church in the same dir

Sporadic violence between Christian and Muslim gangs continued throughout the Central African Republic as leaders of the Muslim Seleka militia appeared to flee Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic on Jan. 26. • The Vatican spokesperson Federico Lombardi, S.J., confirmed on Jan. 2

Despite single-digit temperatures, thousands descended on Washington on Jan. 22 to declare their opposition to abortion. Most of the red noses and chapped lips belonged to faces under 25. “We are the pro-life generation,” read signs carried by the marchers. The president of the March for

Testifying before the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child, Vatican representatives acknowledged the horror of sexual abuse by members of the clergy and, under sometimes intense questioning, insisted the Vatican was serious about protecting children.Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican observ

Bishops from North America, Europe and Africa called on international leaders to act immediately so people living in the Gaza Strip can have access to basic necessities.“Gaza is a man-made disaster, a shocking scandal, an injustice that cries out to the human community for a resolution,”

A new Web resource at www.sj2014.net, commemorating the restoration of the Society of Jesus in 1814, was launched in January. • New Mexico’s Catholic bishops said they strongly oppose the “authorization of assisted suicide by the state” after a court in Albuquerque ruled on Ja

A Mexican bishop has rebuked the federal government for sending soldiers to seize the weapons of self-defense groups formed to fight off violent drug cartels and criminal gangs in the western state of Michoacán. Bishop Miguel Patino Velázquez of Apatzingán said the strategy was wrong and targeted